Reviews - The House on Vesper Sands

479 reviews for:

The House on Vesper Sands

Paraic O'Donnell

3.37 AVERAGE

larooster's review against another edition

2.5

dark slow-paced

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

sechurae's review against another edition

5.0

Enjoyed this immensely. An procedural/mystery immersed in the Victorian era with a ghostly twist. Regarding the central conceit, I'm not sure it was the most compelling or intricately plotted storyline, but the pacing, and especially the character work elevated this for me.

Dialogue and prose read very authentic to the times, and the dynamics between Cutter and Bliss, as well as the Hillingdon siblings struck just the right note. Super amused by Cutter. This world and cast feels ripe for a series of investigative mysteries, so I do hope the author revisits them (edit: just saw the 2025 release of what seems to be a sequel, haha)

roxylj's review against another edition

3.0

This book had such a great potential but I feel that the pacing and drawn out dialogue left something lacking. The story itself is great, the build up of tension and suspense in places is wonderful. I can see what the author was trying to do in creating atmosphere, and in some places it worked and I was mesmerised. In other places I found it really hard to see what I was supposed to be seeing and I had to keep going back to try and situate myself in the story. The characters again leave something to be desired but the relationships between some of them is really nice. A couple of really huge WOW moments for me kept me excited to read on. All in all I'd say it is actually a really great read, with some fairly good twists which I loved.